SPATIO-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENT IN ONDO STATE; NIGERIA

Abstract

Accidents are undesired events resulting from expected combination of conditions that lead to adverse consequences such as injury, loss of life and property. There is generally an increase in incidence, mobility and mortality rates of road traffic accident. People sustain injury on daily basis in the course of movement from point of origin to destination to satisfy various purposes. This study researched into Spatio temporal analysis of road traffic accidents in Ondo State, by considering the accident hotspots in each location of the study areas; looking at the causes of accident by categorizing them into different classes and know the major causes of accidents. The study also delved the extent of the accidents that occurred within the study period. Secondary data was obtain from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on accident records from 2005 to 2017. The study revealed there is significant variation in the pattern of accident occurrences among the months of the year with a revelation of mid-year months July 305 (9.5%) with the highest level of accident followed by March 295 (9.2%) and April 287(8.9%) respectively. On the basis of the spatial distribution of accident Owo local government rank first in the magnitude of accident occurrence with 397(12.3%), followed by Akure South with 332(10.3%).The result of this research also revealed that the major causes of accident are tyre burst with (49.9%), followed by, over speeding(42.4%),brake failure with(27.6%) and use of phone while driving has the least with(0.7%) this have a very high degree of influence on the causes of accident in Ondo State. Analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics and results were presented in tables, graphs and charts. The results from the analysis showed that human errors contributed immensely to road traffic accidents in Ondo State particularly. The study recommend the need to improve on the standard of checking and confirmation of the reliability of imported used vehicle as well as their spare parts. It also recommended that Federal Road Safety Corps should not limit their operational control to ember months alone but to cover other months all year round.